The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1887-11-29
A LOUISIANA B0RGIA.
The Franklin Parish Poisoning
Case Unraveled.
A NUMBER OF DIABoLICAL" CRIMES

From the New Orleans Times Democrat.
In order that the state should be fally pro-
tected, and that every effort should be made to
ferret out and bring to justice the guilty par
ties implicated in the wholesale poisoning of
thirty-two persons i'll the parish of Franklin,
nine of whom have since died, Governor Nc
Emery wrote a letter to Chief of Police Adams
to dispatch to the scene one of his best detec-
tiYes, with instructions to ferret out every de-
tail connected with the affair, and to assist the
district attorney of the parish in every posi-
BILE manner in the detection of the criminals.
Chief Adams detailed Aid ID. S~Gastcr who
left for Turkey Greek, fourteen miles south of
Delhi La, the scene OF this horrible tragedy.
For the past four days Aid Caster has been
engaged in the parish, and did some excellent
work. He returned to the city yesterday even
ing, and being interviewed by Times-Dem-
ocrat reporter gave the following account of
the affair:
Geo. c. King, white man, has little farm
i'll Turkey creek bottom. On Friday October
2S he
GAVE A CoTToN-PTcKING FESTIVAL,
to which himself and family invited some for
ty of their neighbors, After the picking the
King family gave dinner and supper to their
guests \ hog, hen turkey and 1t large COB
the hog and the hen turkey were consumed
After dinner several of the guests took their
departure.
When supper was called those who remain
ed took their seats at the table and were serv-
ed with the stuffed gobbler. Shortly after
supper number OF persons were taken sick
with vomiting, and before twenty four hours
had elapsed thirty-two persons were sick, and
the physicians declared that they were
SUFFERING FRo3I POISON.
At a O0N bp1
negro cook the scraps, and she took them home
and her family were affected in the same man.
ner. Death ensued with some of those who
had been suffering, and an investigation fol-
lowed, and resulted in the discovery that the
gobhler had been impregnated with the poison.
The affair created intense excitement. George
King and his wife Immediately gave it out
that the poison had been put III the turkey by
negroes for revenge.
\ Mr.. Bell, one of the neighbors, said that
he did not believe any such yarn, and another
investigation revealed the fact that neither
Mr.. nor Mrs. King had eaten any of the tur-
key, nor had Mrs. Sephronia Strand, but more
recently Mrs. Walker, Mrs Kings daughter
and Mrs. Mary Bailey, Mrs. Kings sister, had
eaten of the turkey.
Mrs. Walker pretended she had eaten some
of the turkey, and feigned sick, but the physi-
clan who attended her declared she was put
ting on. 1t was also established that on going
to supper Mrs. King instructed her youngest
daughter not to touch the turkey. and it was
remembered by several who sat at the fatal
meal that the child never turned her plate.
Under these suspicious circumstances the sher-
If arrested Mrs. King, Sephronia Strand and
Mrs Mary Bailey, and locked them up in
Winsborough Jail on the charge of willful
murder
George King was not arrested, but he was
hated for the brutal treatment of one of his
sons, and also for his open threats that he
would spend the last dollar he had to get his
family out of jail, and that he would get even
with those who had been instrumental in their
arrest.
On the night Of the 18th OF November, as he
was coming down the road, he was assassnat-
ed, some unknown person, i'll ambush empty
ing the contents of a shotgun into his body.
Mrs. King was heard to say that "If ever
one of her husbands family entered her house
they would
NEVER GO OUT ALIVE
and This gave rise for a motive for the poison
ing.
Mrs. King was a Mrs. Carter formerly, and
She married King, who was a Y;dower with a
large family. She never liked her stepchil-
dren, and it is the belief that in order to get
possession of the estate for her children and
herself exclusively, she concocted the hellish
plot of poisoning them, and invited the neigh
bors to avert suspicion.
The following is n list OF those who have
died from the poison:
Zeke Hill, aged forty years; Patsy Hill,
Mrs. Kings cook, and their son, Arthur, Ben
King, son of George King, aged sixteen years;
Lee Ford, aged sixteen years; John O. Brien,
aged twenty-onc years; Lewis King, eldest son
OF George King. aged thirty-fiye years; Miss
Minnie Brown, the belle of the parish, aged
seventeen years, who was soon to be married:
Walter Bell, aged twelve years.
Walter Bell was the last to die. The stom-
ach of Zeke Hill was to have been sent 10 the
city to have been analysed, but it was not
done. Ben Kings stomach has been turned
over to physicians in Delhi to be analysed.
The reason that King and his wife started
the report that negroes had poisoned the tur-
key, tits believed, was III the hopes that as two
negroes had just been lynched a few days be-
fore for assaulting two young girls that the
white people would turn on the negroes, and
them.
Mrs. Kings first husband, Garter, died under
very suspicious circumstances; also son of
Kings, and it is now believed by those ac-
quainted with the facts in this case that Mrs.
King poisoned them both
The farm which Mrs. King hoped to get poses
sion of by this wholesale poisoning is assessed
at $500. In an interview with VIM Block,
who keeps store at Lamar, lie informed De-
tectiye Caster that he sold Mrs. King an eighth
OF an ounce of strychnine on the 9th of last
September
Caster had an interview with the accused in
prison on Sunday and Mrs. King denied hay
ing had poison Of any character i'll her house
or having purchased any for the past twelve or
thirteen years. The three accused have dark
compilations, with long, straight black hair.
They have a streak OF Indian blood in their
veins